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Sri Lanka - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

Colombo

 

CLIMATE

Tropical monsoon; northeast monsoon (December to March) and southwest monsoon (June to October).

 

LANGUAGES

Sinhala (official and national language), 74%, Tamil (national language),18%, other 8%. Note:  English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Sri Lanka’s legal system is a highly complex mixture of English common law, Roman-Dutch, Muslim, Sinhalese, and customary law. Sri Lanka has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

 

CURRENCY

Sri Lanka Rupee (1 US Dollar = 94.99600 LKR as of March 15, 2002).

 

SRI LANKA - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

SRI LANKA - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U.S. Embassy at Colombo

210 Galle Road

Colombo 3

Sri Lanka

P.O. Box 106

Columbo, Sri Lanka

Telephone: [94] (1) 448-007

Fax: [94] (1) 437-345

http://usembassy.state.gov/srilanka/

 

Embassy of Sri Lanka at Washington D.C.

2148 Wyoming Avenue N.W.

Washington D.C. 20008

Telephone: (202) 483-4025

Fax: (202) 232-7181

 

SRI LANKA - HOLIDAYS

 

SRI LANKA – LEAVE

Annual Leave: Minimum 14 days paid annual leave each year.

 

Maternity Leave: 12 weeks – 100% of pay (paid by employer).

 

SRI LANKA - MINIMUM AGE

The minimum age for employment is 14, although the law permits the employment of younger children by their parents or guardians in limited agricultural work. In January 2000, Parliament repealed a regulation that permitted domestic employment for children as young as age 12. The law permits the employment of persons under the age of 16 for not more than one hour on any day before school. The law also permits employment in any school or institution for training purposes.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Sri Lanka – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

SRI LANKA - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

While there is no universal national minimum wage, approximately 40 wage boards set minimum wages and working conditions by sector and industry. According to the statistics division of the Department of Labor, the Government in September 2000 mandated a $5.00 (400 rupees) increase in the minimum wage for private sector workers, and government workers received an increase equal to 10 percent of their salary, with a minimum raise of $12.50 (1000 rupees) per month. In October 2001, government employees received another wage increase of $13 (1,200 rupees) per month. Minimum wage rates average approximately $33.52 (2,682 rupees) per month in industry, commerce, and the service sector. The rate is approximately $1.42 (114 rupees) per day in agriculture. The minimum wage in the garment industry is $31.00 (1,200 rupees) per month.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Sri Lanka – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

SRI LANKA - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

SRI LANKA - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

 Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The Government respects the constitutional right of workers to establish unions, and the country has a strong trade union tradition. Any seven workers may form a union, adopt a charter, elect leaders, and publicize their views; however, in practice, such rights can be subject to administrative delays, and are unofficially discouraged. Nonetheless, approximately 25 percent of the 6.7 million person work force nationwide and more than 70 percent of the plantation work force, which is overwhelmingly Hill Tamil, is unionized. In total there are more than 1,000,000 union members, 650,000 of whom are women. Approximately 20 percent of the nonagricultural work force in the private sector is unionized. Unions represent most workers in large private firms, but those in small-scale agriculture and small businesses usually do not belong to unions. Public sector employees are unionized at very high rates and are highly politicized.

 

Most large unions are affiliated with political parties and play a prominent role in the political process, though major unions in the public sector are politically independent. More than 30 labor unions have political affiliations, but there are also a small number of unaffiliated unions, some of which have active leaders and a relatively large membership. In 2000 the most recent year for which data is available, the Department of Labor registered 183 new unions and canceled the registration of 132 others, bringing the total number of functioning unions to 1,583. More recent International Labor Organization (ILO) figures have not yet been published. The Department of Labor is authorized by law to cancel the registration of any union that does not submit an annual report. This requirement is the only legal grounds for cancellation of registration.

 

All workers, other than civil servants and workers in "essential" services, have the right to strike. By law workers may lodge complaints with the Commissioner of Labor, a labor tribunal, or the Supreme Court to protect their rights. These mechanisms are effective; however, there can be lengthy delays in the resolution of cases. The Government periodically has controlled strikes by declaring some industries essential under the ER (which lapsed in July). The President retains the power to designate any industry as an essential service. The ILO has pointed out to the Government that essential services should be limited to services where an interruption would endanger the life, personal safety, or health of the population.

 

Civil servants collectively may submit labor grievances to the Public Service Commission, but they have no legal grounds to strike. Nonetheless, government workers in the transportation, medical, educational, power generation, financial, and port sectors have staged brief strikes and other work actions in the past few years. There were more than 100 public sector strikes during the year.

 

The law prohibits retribution against strikers in nonessential sectors. Employers may dismiss workers only for disciplinary reasons, mainly misconduct. Incompetence or low productivity are not grounds for dismissal. Dismissed employees have a right to appeal their termination before a labor tribunal.

 

Unions may affiliate with international bodies, and some have done so. The Ceylon Workers Congress, composed exclusively of Hill Tamil plantation workers, is the only trade union organization affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), although a new trade union in the Biyagama export processing zone (EPZ) is affiliated with the Youth Forum of the ICFTU. No national trade union center exists to centralize or facilitate contact with international groups.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The law provides for the right to collective bargaining, and it is practiced widely. Large firms may have employees in as many as 60 different unions. In enterprises without unions, including those in the EPZ's, worker councils--composed of employees, employers and often a public sector representative--generally provide the forums for labor and management negotiation. The councils do not have the power to negotiate binding contracts, and labor advocates have criticized them as ineffective.

 

In December 1999, Parliament passed an amendment to the Industrial Disputes Act to require employers to recognize trade unions and the right to collective bargaining. The law prohibits antiunion discrimination. This law is being implemented. Employers found guilty of such discrimination must reinstate workers fired for union activities but may transfer them to different locations.

 

There are approximately 110,000 workers employed in three EPZ's, a large percentage of them women. Under the law, workers in the EPZ's have the same rights to join unions as other workers. Few unions have formed in the EPZ's, largely because of severe restrictions on access by union organizers to the zones. While the unionization rate in the rest of the country is approximately 25 percent, the rate within the EPZ's is only 10 percent. Labor representatives allege that the Government's Board of Investment, which manages the EPZ's, including setting wages and working conditions in the EPZ's, has discouraged union activity. Work councils in the EPZ's are chaired by the Government's Board of Investment (BOI) and only have the power to make recommendations. Labor representatives also allege that the Labor Commissioner, under BOI pressure, has failed to prosecute employers who refuse to recognize or enter into collective bargaining with trade unions. While employers in the EPZ's offer generally higher wages and better working conditions than employers elsewhere, workers face other concerns, such as security, expensive but low quality boarding houses, and sexual harassment. In most instances, wage boards establish minimum wages and conditions of employment, except in the EPZ's, where wages and work conditions are set by the BOI.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

Forced or compulsory labor is prohibited under the law; however, there were reports of the use of forced or compulsory labor. There are reports of women being trafficked to the country for the purpose of prostitution (see Section 6.f.). Some children reportedly were trafficked and forced into prostitution (see Sections 5 and 6.f.). The law does not prohibit forced or bonded labor by children specifically, but government officials interpret it as applying to persons of all ages. In the past there were credible reports that some rural children were employed in debt bondage as domestic servants in urban households; some of these children reportedly had been abused; however, no cases were reported during the year.

 

There are credible reports that some soldiers attached to an army camp north of Batticaloa forced local villagers to build a wall around the camp during 2000, and that they beat individuals who refused to comply. The military apparently transferred the officer responsible for the forced labor when the abuse was publicized.

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The law prohibits labor by children under 14 years of age, but child labor is a problem and still exists in the informal sectors. The National Child Protection Authority Act (NCPA) combats the problem of child abuse, including unlawful child labor. The act consolidated existing legislation that established what types of employment are restricted for children, which age groups are affected, and what the minimum age for child labor is for particular jobs. The minimum age for employment is 14, although the law permits the employment of younger children by their parents or guardians in limited agricultural work. In January 2000, Parliament repealed a regulation that permitted domestic employment for children as young as age 12. The law permits the employment of persons under the age of 16 for not more than one hour on any day before school. The law also permits employment in any school or institution for training purposes. The Compulsory Attendance at Schools Act, which requires children between the ages of 5 and 14 to attend school, has been in effect since January 1998, although it still is being implemented. The ultimate effect that this act may have on the child labor problem remains unclear. Despite legislation, child labor still exists. A child activity survey carried out in 1998 and 1999 by the Department of Census and Statistics found almost 11,000 children between the ages of 5 and 14 working full time and another 15,000 engaged in both economic activity and housekeeping. The survey found 450,000 children employed by their families in seasonal agricultural work.

 

Persons under age 16 may not be employed in any public enterprise in which life or limb is endangered. There are no reports that children are employed in the EPZ's, the garment industry, or any other export industry, although children sometimes are employed during harvest periods in the plantation sectors and in nonplantation agriculture. A 1995 labor survey of the plantations indicated that half of all children in plantations drop out of school after the fourth grade, leaving a large pool of children between the ages of 10 and 15 available to pursue employment.

 

Many thousands of children are believed to be employed in domestic service, although this situation is not regulated or documented. A 1997 study reported that child domestic servants are employed in 8.6 percent of homes in the Southern Province. The same study reported that child laborers in the domestic service sector often are deprived of an education. Many child domestics are reportedly subjected to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

 

Regular employment of children also occurs in the informal sector and in family enterprises such as family farms, crafts, small trade establishments, restaurants, and repair shops. Children also are involved in the manufacture of coconut fiber products, bricks, fishing, wrapping tobacco, street trading, and farming. Government inspections have been unable to eliminate these forms of child labor (see Section 5), although an awareness campaign coupled with the establishment of hot lines for reporting child labor has led to an increase in the prosecutions regarding child labor violations by the Labor Department. The Labor Department reported 194 complaints regarding child labor in 2000, with 79 of these cases withdrawn due to lack of evidence or faulty complaints. The Department prosecuted 7 cases in 2000. In the first eight months of the year, the Labor Department reported 199 complaints, with 48 cases withdrawn and 40 prosecuted. According to the Ministry of Labor, there were 10 prosecutions for child labor (below the age of 14) during 2000. Under legislation dating from 1956, the maximum penalty for employing minors is about $12 (1,000 rupees), with a maximum jail term of 6 months.

 

Internal trafficking in male children for the purpose of prostitution is a problem (see Sections 5 and 6.f.). Estimates of the number of child prostitutes range from 2,000 to 30,000; however, there are no reliable statistics. Although forced or bonded labor by persons of any age is prohibited by law, some rural children reportedly have served in debt bondage, although there were no reports of this during the year (see Sections 5 and 6.c.). The Government ratified ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor on March 1.

 

The LTTE continued to use high school-age children for work as cooks, messengers, and clerks. In some cases, the children reportedly help build fortifications. In the past, children as young as age 10 were said to be recruited and placed for 2 to 4 years in special schools that provided them with a mixture of LTTE ideology and formal education. The LTTE uses children as young as 13 years of age in battle, and children sometimes are recruited forcibly into the LTTE (see Section 5). In May 1999, the LTTE began a program of compulsory physical training, including mock military drills, for most of the population of the areas that it controls, including for schoolchildren and the aged. This LTTE program still functions. According to LTTE spokesmen, this work is meant to keep the population fit; however, it is believed widely that the training was established in order to gain tighter control over the population and to provide a base for recruiting fighters.

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

The Department of Labor effectively enforces the minimum wage law for large companies through routine inspections; however, staffing shortages prevent the department from effectively monitoring the informal sector. While there is no universal national minimum wage, approximately 40 wage boards set minimum wages and working conditions by sector and industry. According to the statistics division of the Department of Labor, the Government in September 2000 mandated a $5.00 (400 rupees) increase in the minimum wage for private sector workers, and government workers received an increase equal to 10 percent of their salary, with a minimum raise of $12.50 (1000 rupees) per month. In October government employees received another wage increase of $13 (1,200 rupees) per month. Minimum wage rates average approximately $33.52 (2,682 rupees) per month in industry, commerce, and the service sector. The rate is approximately $1.42 (114 rupees) per day in agriculture. The minimum wage in the garment industry is $31.00 (1,200 rupees) per month. These minimum wages are insufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and the standard family of five, but the vast majority of families have more than one breadwinner.

 

Most permanent full-time workers are covered by laws that prohibit them from regularly working more than 45 hours per week (a 5 1/2-day workweek). Such workers also receive 14 days of annual leave, 14 to 21 days of medical leave, and approximately 20 local holidays each year. Maternity leave is available for permanent and seasonal or part-time female workers. Several laws protect the safety and health of industrial workers, but the Ministry of Labor's small staff of inspectors is inadequate to enforce compliance with the laws. Workers have the statutory right to remove themselves from situations that endanger their health, but many workers are unaware of, or indifferent to, health risks, and fear that they would lose their jobs if they removed themselves. Health and safety regulations do not meet international standards.

 

f. Trafficking in Persons

 

The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however, Sri Lanka is a country of origin and destination for trafficked persons, primarily women and children for the purposes of forced labor, and for sexual exploitation. Sri Lankan women travel to Middle Eastern countries to work as domestics and some have reported being forced into domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. Sri Lankan women are trafficked to Singapore for purposes of sexual exploitation. Some Sri Lankan children are trafficked internally both for sexual exploitation and as domestics. Citizens are trafficked to the United Kingdom for labor exploitation. Boys are trafficked to the Middle East (primarily Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) as camel jockeys. According to police reports, there is a floating pool of approximately 200 foreign female sex workers in the country who may have been trafficked from the former Soviet Union, Thailand, and China.

 

Internal trafficking in male children is also a problem, especially from areas bordering the northern and eastern provinces. Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere (PEACE), a domestic NGO, estimates that there are at least 5,000 male children between the ages of 8 and 15 years who are engaged as sex workers both at beach and mountain resorts. Some of these children are forced into prostitution by their parents or by organized crime (see Section 5). PEACE also reports that an additional 7,000 young men aged 15 to 18 years are self-employed prostitutes.

 

SRI LANKA - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

SRI LANKA - STANDARD WORKWEEK

Most permanent full-time workers are covered by laws that prohibit them working more than 45 hours per week (a 5 1/2-day workweek).

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Sri Lanka – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)